Blizzard sues emu wow server and wins 88million dollars

[girth]

Scapegaming was operating unauthorized World of Warcraft servers and using a micropayment system to collect money from the servers' user base, which according to the lawsuit amounted to just over $3 million.

What the fuck is wrong with people? $3 million dollars in sales from a micro system on a damn EMU server??!?!

[corradojeff]

Originally Posted by Itchybottom [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I keep seeing this, but it's quite false. I'm not a lawyer, but I've read a few cases where the plaintiff has been successful at shutting down a resource, or suing the person for copyright violation.

Intellectual property such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft emulated servers fall under derivative work clauses in copyright law. You can borrow quite a few things (ideas) from something like EverQuest or WoW lore, but there isn't really a clean cut and dry definition of law on fictional characters, lore, worlds, and names that have clear copyrights in such an environment. This grey area is a real bear to tackle and will get you screwed if anything ever gets as far as a court date. When it comes to infringing on a copyright, the plaintiff just needs to prove that the work in question has been based upon the original copyrighted work. The rulings of note usually stipulate "Translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form which a work may be recast, transformed or adapted." Clearly, Project 1999 falls into this category.

Like the actual lawyer that posted on this forum though, I'm not worried.

Rogean has already replied to a post similar to one with these same points:

Originally Posted by Rogean [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yes it is legal, because A) We do not distribute copyrighted files, B) We do not charge people to play, therefor we are not making any sort of money or profit off of the intellectual property of SOE, and C) SOE Grants, in their user agreement, a license to utilize Everquest names and art, to all accounts in good standing:



Some say that it is not legal due to the following clause in the user agreement:



However, statements like these in a user agreement do not constitute legality, they merely serve as a guideline that if broken can terminate your usage of their services.

[Itchybottom]

Originally Posted by corradojeff [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Rogean has already replied to a post similar to one with these same points:

I'm not talking about EULA violation, I'm talking about regular copyright law.

[Aum]

Theres a quote somewhere of Rogean(I believe) saying he spoke to Smed at the fanfaire, that SoE knows about p99, and that it's not at risk of being shut down.

edit:

Originally Posted by Rogean [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I was in vegas for 7 days overlapping fanfaire and poked in there a few times. Through some connections I got to meet smedley face to face. Hes not interested in trying to do anything to us, as long as we don't charge / profit.

Notice I said trying.. because even if they did decide to, we really don't do anything illegal to begin with (Intellectual Property is only illegal to profit from).

[Elissa]

Originally Posted by Aum [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Theres a quote somewhere of Rogean(I believe) saying he spoke to Smed at the fanfaire, that SoE knows about p99, and that it's not at risk of being shut down.

edit:

As some of you may have seen me post before, the cases and intellectual law are not quite so cut and dry as to allow use of another's intellectual property so long as you do not profit from it (in some cases you CAN profit, actually, but that doesn't mean nonprofitable uses are always okay). There are many nuances to consider and if SOE wanted p99 gone, it more than likely would be without substantial funds to fund a defense. Even with a funded defense, the legal ground is certainly not clear in this case.

Nonetheless, aside from Smed and Rog themselves saying there's nothing to worry about, given everything else, some brief research and my own personal experience, I would tend to agree we're really not in any danger.

Woooo! (oh yeah, i'm a lawyer)

[Overcast]

In the cases where there's a 'charge' for an EMU server it's pretty crystal clear that the company incurred 'damages'.

With a free server, 'damages' get a bit more dicey, which puts the plaintiff in a position of loose/loose most likely. Even if they win the case, and the defendant has to pay fines, the 'damages' side will be non-existent. And in the case of someone not making cash, if the plaintiff ends up getting the judgment the defendant can end up filing bankruptcy, leaving the plaintiff with only legal fees and wasted time.

[Rogean]

Originally Posted by Reiker [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

SoE shut down Winter's Roar (came back as Shards of Dalaya) for about a year. That was a long time ago and hasn't happened since.

Originally Posted by Reiker [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Winter's Roar? They weren't charging anyone. SOE hit them with a C&D and Wiz didn't have the money to spend on lawyers and stuff. They waited about a year, changed the name, and haven't been bothered since.

I wouldn't say SOE "Shut them Down". Yes, they did send a C&D. Do you know how many C&D's EQEmu has gotten over the years? Winter's Roar CHOSE to shut down after they got a C&D because they were afraid of continueing. EQEmu chose to remain open after several C&D's and was never touched.

Sending a C&D is one thing, thats simply sending a big important looking letter to the owner of something saying "Hey stop this or we're gonna come after you", then following up with that is a completely different thing. I'd say more than 90% of C&D's aren't followed up.

[Eternal-Elf]

I would think they have better things to do then come after an Emu server for a game that is losing fan-base as it is.
Who knows though, one of these days someone may skip their coffee and just be pissed lol

[eqdruid76]

The judgement was a default ruling, because it went uncontested. It may go to trial again, and there's every possibility that Blizzard will lose. Or the defendent will declare bankruptcy. In any case, Blizzard probably won't see any money from the suit....except for the hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) in live subscriptions garnered from interest generated by the emulated server. Ungrateful jerks, imo :P